Saints edged a thriller at a sold-out Twickenham as Bath battled to the bitter end despite Beno Obano's early red card
Saints edged a thriller at a sold-out Twickenham as Bath battled to the bitter end despite Beno Obano's early red cardand their longer-running programme of rebuilding with English coaches led by Phil Dowson that edged a spectacularly marginal verdict in the Premiership final.
The emotions of Lawes and Ludlam can only be imagined as they now head off to clubs in France next season.Bath will be utterly shattered at the brutal way the final played out, but also heartened at how they stayed in the contest.Alex Mitchell’s try on 72 minutes for Northampton, finishing off a half-break by Fraser Dingwall and a full one by George Hendy, was the decisive score but many in the 81,699 crowd must have expected Saints would have been assured of the win long before then.
There was a gut reaction of disappointment, if you viewed it with a primary interest of keeping the teams at 15 v 15, and not ruining the afternoon for, generally, the sell-out crowd or, more specifically, Alfie Barbeary, who had to be substituted by Juan Schoeman to restore Bat’s front row-resources. Barbeary, one of the Bath’s best carriers, and an England hopeful at No.8 who has come through so much injury hell, simply cannot catch a break.
In the 27-year life of the Premiership, as it was rebranded in 1997, only four matches have been won by a team taking a red card. Whether Van Graan’s “process” included something mollifying to be said to ease the pain of Obano and Barbeary is moot.
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